Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pre-Colonial Postcolocial-STS Moro
Pre-Colonial Postcolocial-STS Moro
in the Philippines
Pre-colonial Period
Stone Age
Archeological findings show that modern man from Asian mainland first came over land on
across narrow channels to live in Batangas and Palawan about 48, 000 B.C.
Subsequently they formed settlement in Sulu, Davao, Zamboanga, Samar, Negros, Batangas,
Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and Cagayan.
They made simple tools and weapons of stone flakes and later developed method of sawing
and polishing stones around 40, 000 B.C. by around 3, 000 B.C. they were producing adzes
ornaments of seashells and pottery. Pottery flourished for the next 2, 000 years until they
imported Chinese porcelain. Soon they learned to produce copper, bronze, iron, and gold
metal tools and ornaments.
Iron Age
The Iron Age lasted from second or third century B.C. to 10th century A.D. during this period
Filipinos were engaged in extraction smelting and refining of iron from ores, until the
importation of cast iron from Sarawak and later from China.
They learn to weave cotton, make glass ornaments, and cultivate lowland rice and dike fields
of terraced fields utilizing spring water in mountain regions. (Banaue rice terraces in
Cordillera. Created more than 2,000 years ago by the Ifugao people).
They also learned to build boats for trading purposes. Spanish chronicles noted refined plank
built warship called caracoa suited for interisland trade raids.
10th century A.D. – Filipinos from Butuan were trading with Champa (Vietnam) and those
from Ma-I (Mindoro) with China as noted in Chinese records containing several references to
the Philippines. These archaeological findings indicated that regular trades relations between
the Philippines, China and Vietnam had been well establish from the 10th century to the 15th
century A.D.
The people of Ma-I and San-Hsu (Palawan) traded bee wax, cotton, pearls, coconut heart
mats, tortoise shell and medicinal betel nuts, panie cloth for porcelain, leads fishnets sinker,
colored glass beads, iron pots, iron needles and tin.
Before the Spaniards
Filipinos were already engage in activities and practices related to science forming primitive
or first wave technology. They were curative values of some plant on how to extract medicine
from herbs. They had an alphabet, a system of writing (which they use sharp-pointed tools,
leaves, bamboo and trunk’s skin. Baybayin), a method of counting and weights and measure.
They had no calendar but counted the years by the period of the moon and from one harvest to
another.
Postcolonial Period